RECEIVED: Planet Susannia (Susanna Lakner) Mail-Art Book Chapter Q for Project 26 (Stuttgart, Germany)

[De Villo Sloan]

Mail-art book Chapter Q by IUOMA member Susanna Lakner (Stuttgart, Germany)

 

February 25, 2011 - Susanna Lakner's Chapter Q is arriving in mailboxes across the globe. Susanna is well-known in the network for her distinctive style, amazing blogs, and numerous projects that recently included a print journal featuring some absolutely spectacular visual poetry. She has created Planet Susannia, truly an alternate world of art; and this theme is used in Chapter Q. The top photo is the last page of the chapter. I used it first because this contribution to Cheryl Penn's 26 collaborative mail-art book project is Maximum Susannia indeed:

Susanna chose to create a butterfly species to inhabit the planet; it fits in perfectly with the archaeological, sci-fi, mythic, X-Files themes of Project 26. As a follower of her blogs for many months, I know Susanna Lakner has an amazing grasp of the historic avant garde, especially as it manifests in Germany: a formidable tradition for sure. She effortlessly synthesizes elements including vispo, collage, and found materials into something very unique and that also exhibits a great deal of skill:

A little exploration of evolution here and characteristic Susanna image juxtapositions. On the right-hand page above, the double zeros (OO) are a flap or door you can open to see an image on the next page. When the flap is open, it looks like this:

So we get the "Q" and a butterfly image. I'm sure book artists must have a name for this technique. It's interesting to note that TIC TAC (also from Germany) used a similar concept in her Chapter T, whereas Cheryl Penn chose to include smaller pages - chapters within chapters - in her Chapter B (which I still have not received!). 

All in all, yet another exciting contribution to the project. Susanna used the Q stamp on the envelope as well:

The address side explains why work Susanna sent me earlier never made it to New York:

The zip code is in the place where the P.O. Box number should be. Note to self: E-mail Susanna with correct address (again). Susanna Lakner also included some of her printed cards, and here's my favorite from the batch:

Planet Susannia is an outstanding blog with mail-art, good links, and more:

http://www.planet-susannia.blogspot.com

MAIL-ART PSYCHIC

Avoid Prophet-sharing plans. Do not eat your Prophets; it's bad for the bottom line (see today's quote). Opportunity awaits you on Monday. Lucky numbers: 16, 17, 30, 22

 

MAIL-ART COLOR FOR THE DAY: Red oxide

 

MAIL-ART QUOTE FOR THE DAY

 

U.S. poet Tom Clark's blog is gaining a permanent place in my daily blog hopping. His post from yesterday with a quote from Ezra Pound moved even my idiotic and jaded sensibilities in a kind of awe. Also included by some confluence of randomness is a pic grabbing the last word in Sandpo, which I would not describe as awesome but something better.

 

http://tomclarkblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/ezra-pound-paradise-lost-n...

 

"Let those I love try to forgive what I have made." Only Pound could pull that off with the extraordinary resonance it contains.

[Marie Wintzer]

:-))) Butt-erfly, yes, that's total DWism. Where is he when one needs him?

[cheryl penn]

with or without attached chameleon?

[De Villo Sloan]

Brent - Human Artist Vending Machine LTD - I'm smiling every time I see that. OK, that's who you are. Is it like PIL? Public Image Ltd? Marie, Susanna just has a knack for finding the most interesting images and concepts. The butterfly. I'm sure DW would point out: butt-erfly

[Marie Wintzer]

I've said it so many times before, but the butterfly ladies are fantastic. And now we get to see their queen, great!

[Human Artist Vending Machine LTD]

this does look fun,I like the work

[De Villo Sloan]

Katerina, Bifidus, Cheryl - nice words & observations concerning Susanna's work. Glad you share my enthusiasm. She's been a fav since I joined IUOMA. I'm thrilled to finally have a chance to blog her. As you can see, we had some address errors & I don't like to think about what was lost. TY again friends

[cheryl penn]

Great blog for great work. This is the engine of visual story telling at its most engaging.  I think all these blogs need to form the basis of documentation for this international collaborative project. They are proving to be an insightful source of reference material for each artist and their work. Thanks DVS.

[Bifidus Jones]

Great blog, De Villo. "Historic avant garde" suits her work perfectly. I like her approach to this project--and others have done the same--in which she uses explanations, examples, details, etc.--a pseudo-science of sorts, which really lends itself to this project.

[Katerina Nikoltsou (MomKat)]

Red oxide! Great color, 'must send you and Cheryl red oxide "Circles of my Mind". Yep, going out in Monday's mail.

And this blog for "Q" is Quintesential...as is Susanna's amazing chapter! Beautiful!